After a Lifetime
by RachelRavenclaw16
Summary: "You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon." Harry came to a station because he needed to choose a path, but Severus already chose, he just needed to put it into action. This is where Severus ended up after he closed his eyes for the last time. *My take on Snape's version of King's Cross*


It was white, he remarked. Too white. It was completely understandable for the man to dislike the brightness because he looked so out of place anyways.

His flat black hair was oddly clean yet was still as dull as usual. Below his forehead where his ebony locks hung were his bleak eyes that were just as dark. His whole face was rather ghostly, especially his sunken sallow cheeks and very large hooked nose. His robes were black as well, and for once they were well-fitted. He was barefoot as well yet the floor was not cold underneath his toes, though neither was it warm. How odd.  
Then, he noted, the room was completely silent. Usually Severus Snape respected the peaceful break from noise, but as he realized where he was, it became quite eerie.  
The Great Hall seemed larger than normal, or perhaps it just seemed that way, without the hustle and bustle of students and teachers. And even more eerie and odd was that instead of dusty gray tiles covering the bottom of the Hall, a sheet of white marble was spread across. Severus glanced to the ceiling which was -as if reflecting the floors- pure white. The tapestries were not red and gold and green and blue. They were plain and colorless, as were the walls and the thousands of floating candles emitting white light and the hundreds of ancient chairs that were smooth, gleaming and white.

Severus began to make his way towards the end of the hall. Perhaps his eyes were fooling him, but the room seemed to stretch farther and farther as he took each step. Walking, he began to differentiate the odd white features of the new disfigured Hall.  
The four long wooden tables were empty of their deep mahogany color, platters of food, and sleeves of robes hanging over. Severus' eyes strayed to the teacher's table at the far end of the hall. Gone was Dumbledore with his half-moon spectacles, smiling in the center chair. Gone was the jabbering happy faculty that Severus wished he could've opened up too. And gone were his long Hogwarts years that should've gone a different way. The people he had befriended in his Slytherin house had something to do with his ghastly future, but in this colorless place it only felt right to rid his mind of its mess and realize that he could truly only blame himself.  
Severus pushed those thoughts away that were slowly emerging from the locked cases in his head, where he had hidden them years ago. There was only the present to worry about - only Harry - but how? How could he do any more for Lily's son if he was... Well where _was_ he? Dead, perhaps. Finally dead.

He had almost began to look forward to death. No, he was kidding himself: Severus had hoped for death. A reason to give up this endless war between himself and...life. But still Severus stayed alive with each passing day of his allegiance to Dumbledore, yet he grew foolish. Towards the last days leading to the battle he had grown to believing that the Dark Lord would spare him. Spare him! Even if the Dark Lord discovered the reason why his new wand wouldn't yield to him, Severus had hope that The Lord would only disarm him in hopes to sparing his life! Foolish as he was, at least while taking his final breaths he had the time to give one more hint, one more push to Lily's boy. He was dead but at least he hadn't left behind more of a burden than he'd needed to. He had done all he could.  
Severus was walking faster now. He was nearing the teacher's table and he noticed something. Sitting on a wooden stool - the only fragment of color in the room beside himself - sat the frayed sorting hat. For a moment, the hidden thoughts in the back of his mind creeped to the surface.

 _He approached the old hat, with the rest Hogwarts staring at him. Professor McGonagall placed the dingy hat on his head. Gryffindor, please Gryffindor. He couldn't be separated from Lily, nothing would be the same. Please Gryffindor._

A warm wave of air flew down Severus' back. He felt a presence of something. Someone. He whipped around and saw, sitting in her white seat at the white Gryffindor table, was his Lily. Her red locks rested upon her white robed shoulders. Her ever-so-green eyes focused on him. Waiting. Waiting for him. He knew what to do. Tentatively, he sat upon the stool and placed the ratty Sorting Hat on his head. Lily gave him a nod. As another wave of heat passed over him, he felt the memories unlock again.  
 _  
If only he had been in Gryffindor, he was brave enough! Severus kicked the ground as he walked away from Lily. Or even Ravenclaw, hadn't he proven he was intelligent? Anything but Slytherin. At first he tried to tell Lily that he was lucky to be placed in such a noble house but deep down he knew - and evidently her as well- that he was kidding himself. He belonged in Slytherin. He wished he didn't. He just wanted things to be the same. They couldn't._

The hat was silent, resting on his head, but Severus could feel it thinking. He could sense a lifetimes worth of memories and thoughts being gulped up by the hat.  
Albus told him that perhaps they sort too soon. And that must be true or Severus would have, in the end, crossed a different road, traveled a different path.

A moment that last a lifetime ticked and -

"Gryffindor!"

The hat's scratchy voice echoed through the hall and Severus could almost hear the clapping of students. The Great Hall didn't feel so much as a room in Hogwarts. Now everything made sense. It was where he started and now, where he would begin again. He stood up giddily and felt as if he were eleven again, and perhaps he was, as he headed towards his Lily. She gave him a smile.

"After all this time, Sev?"

"Some people need it."


End file.
